On Tuesday, AMD revealed pricing and availability for its upcoming Ryzen 9 7950X3D, Ryzen 9 7900X3D, and Ryzen 7 7800X3D processors. The two Ryzen 9 chips will be available on February 28, with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D following on April 6. More importantly, the flagship does not have a price increase.
The suggested retail prices for the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, Ryzen 9 7900X3D, and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are $700, $600, and $450, respectively. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D is priced the same as the base Ryzen 9 7950X, while the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is $50 more expensive than the Ryzen 7 7700X. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D also has a $40 to $50 price increase.
Although the two Ryzen 9 models do not cost more than AMD’s suggested prices, they are more expensive. AMD’s Zen 4 processors have sold poorly, resulting in the Ryzen 9 7950X selling for $550 to $600 and the Ryzen 9 7900X selling for less than $400.
This shift almost guarantees lower-priced Ryzen 7000 processors. AMD hasn’t made any official announcements, but we don’t expect prices to rise again once 3D V-Cache processors become available.
This time, however, is different. AMD released only one processor with 3D V-Cache in the previous generation. The company is now moving the technology up the product stack, with the Ryzen 9 7950X3D including 3D V-Cache in addition to the full 16 Zen 4 cores found on the base processor.
Since AMD announced them at the start of the year, these processors have been highly anticipated. The chips’ 3D V-Cache technology propelled last generation’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D to the top of the charts as the best gaming processor you can buy, and it remains there even as next-gen processors hit the market.
AMD claims that the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D is up to 24% faster in games than Intel’s Core i9-13900K and anywhere from 4% to 52% faster in productivity apps. The latter was the previous generation’s Achilles’ heel, with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D being pummelling by other processors outside of gaming (read our Ryzen 7 5800X3D review for more details).
According to AMD, this processor is designed to address the shortcomings of the previous generation. However, gaming remains the primary focus. AMD claims that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is up to 30% faster than the previous generation and that gamers can expect a 15% boost on average.
Although it’s clear that AMD wants to be at the top of the list of best processors, we won’t be able to test them until we get our hands on them. AMD’s cheaper Ryzen 7000 processors can have unexpectedly high performance, as we recently saw with the Ryzen 5 7600. AMD’s Ryzen 7000 game bundle promotion includes the new processors, which include a free digital code for the upcoming Star Wars Jedi Survivor. Although the promotion is still active, the game’s original March release date has been pushed back to late April.